1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to emergency equipment and devices, and particularly to a rescue harness providing for the escape of an individual from a high-rise structure or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
The extremely high cost of land in the centers of many large cities places a premium on the costs of building any form of structure in such areas. At the same time, technology has permitted the construction of ever taller buildings and structures for use as business or office buildings and living quarters (apartments and condominiums). As a result, increasingly taller building structures are being constructed in cities around the world.
A universal potential problem with such tall buildings is the emergency evacuation of people from such structures in the event of a fire or other emergency event. Generally, multiple elevators are provided in such tall structures, and alternative means of operating such elevators are also provided in the event of power outages on the local power grid. Nonetheless, the complete failure of elevator systems certainly occurs from time to time, even in such taller structures with various alternatives and backups. Stairways are universally provided in such structures for use when elevators are not functioning, but the evacuation of hundreds of people down dozens of flights of stairs is impracticable at best.
Accordingly, various personal rescue devices have been developed in the past. An example of such is found in PCT Patent Publication No. 03/055,560 published on Jul. 10, 2003 to Simon Suter, which publication describes (according to the drawings and English abstract) a personal rescue harness including a rope storage drum and automatic braking device to slow the deployment of the rope from the drum, thus slowing the descent of a person wearing the harness. Additional tools are also disclosed.
Thus, a rescue harness solving the aforementioned problems is desired.